Page 102 of All's Fair In Love & War

I could only see her.

And then the car she was in spun out.

The sound of metal twisting and tires shrieking tore through the night as the vehicle lost control. It clipped the edge of a parked SUV, flipped onto its side, and skidded across the street before crashing into a low stone wall with a sickening, final impact.

For a second, everything froze. The only thing I could hear was the sound of my own breath, shaky and shallow, as smoke began to rise from the wreck.

Dallas swerved onto the side of the road and reached for the gear shift, ready to throw the car in park, but I slapped my hand over his.

“Don’t stop,” I said firmly. “Keep driving.”

He looked at me like I’d lost my mind. “Are you serious right now? We just watched that car flip—”

“I know what we saw,” I cut in, my voice harsher than I intended. “I saw Felicity in the passenger seat, and if she was in that car, then Khalil was most likely the one behind the wheel. We can’t be seen together. Not like this.”

“Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!” he shouted, slamming his fist against the steering wheel.

“We can’t be here,” I added quickly. “Not together. The treaty’s still fragile. If anyone catches us near that wreck, especially together, it will blow everything apart. My car is just one block over,” I told him. “Drop me there, and I’ll circle back.”

Dallas hesitated for half a second, jaw tight, eyes locked on the rearview like he was barely registering anything I said, but then he pressed his foot on the gas, driving us faster.

He didn’t say another word as we moved away from the scene, and neither did I. Not until we reached the end of the next block, where my car sat parked near a streetlight.

Before he could put the car in park, I was already reaching for the door.

“Wait a few minutes before you drive back to the scene. I’ll text you with an update on Felicity the moment I get there,” I said before stepping out.

“Make sure I get that text as soon as you get there.”

“I got you. I promise,” I replied before shutting the door behind me.

I jumped in my car and rushed back toward the crash, doing eighty miles per hour on a thirty-mile-per-hour road. Sirens were starting to build in the distance, growing louder by the second, and by the time I made it back to the wreck, the ambulance had arrived.

Chapter 24

Up In Smoke

Felicity

I couldn’t feel my legs.

I wasn’t sure if it was from the shock or the way the dashboard had crumpled around us like paper, but everything below my waist felt far away. My ears were ringing, my head was spinning, and the only thing I could hear over the chaos was the sound of my heartbeat thudding against my ribs.

“Khalil,” I croaked, my voice barely audible over the sirens and shouting. “Please wake up, Khalil, please.”

His body was slumped against the steering wheel, his head tilted at an angle that made something cold settle in my chest. Blood trickled from the side of his temple, winding its way down his cheek, and he wasn’t moving. Not even a twitch.

“Khalil,” I said louder this time, reaching for him with trembling fingers. “Please. Come on. Say something,” I begged, pleaded, even, but he didn’t.

Someone outside the car was yelling. I couldn’t make out the words, just the urgency in their tone. Lights flashed red and blue across the shattered glass and bent metal, turning everything into a strobe of panic and steel. I tried to lift my arm again, but my seatbelt had locked tight across my chest, pinning me in place.

I slightly turned my head, seeing the first responder outside my window.

“We’ve got movement in the front passenger,” he called out. “Driver’s unresponsive.”

I wanted to scream that he wasn’t just a driver. He was Khalil. He was the only reason I hadn’t completely lost my mind since my world had flipped upside down, and now he was sitting there as if all the fight had been drained out of him.

A firefighter crouched low beside my door, peering in with a calm expression that didn’t match the urgency in his movements.

---